Cold Picnic

A Heart of Gould

2010-11-06T08:57:00.014-04:00

The Silent Partner, Daryl Duke (1978)

Again, it's been a long while. I've been paying all my attention to a different Cold Picnic. But I think you may enjoy (who couldn't?!?!) these images from The Silent Partner, a super-fun take on a bank heist film. Elliot Gould stars as a cheeky yet shy Canadian bank teller, along with the magnificently eyelash-ed Christopher Plummer as a sinister robber, Celine Gomez as the also-cheeky mystery girl, and Tom Jones's Susannah York as the one character in the entire movie filmed from behind a vaseline lens.

I meant what I said about cheeky...

those eyelashes

the vaseline lens in action

Celine Gomez's near Gould-esque levels of cheek

The most perfect haircut since Maria Schneider's perm in Last Tango

Surely a nod to The Long Goodbye

Beach-Ready!

2010-02-28T18:04:00.010-05:00

Manhunter, Michael Mann (1986)

It's been a while - sorry! But maybe I've been waiting all winter for a movie like Manhunter.

(that's a snake-print tie, in case you can't tell)

...not usually a huge Tom Noonan fan (here he plays the insecure serial killer who falls for 20-something Joan Allen - a dead ringer for Kristen Dunst, oddly enough... ) but this shirt was amazing. Almost like a Helmut Lang or Prada print, with pintucks on either side of the hidden front placket.

One of the earlier (if not the earliest) film adaptations of the Hannibal Lecktor series, Manhunter features Brian Cox as a Dr. Lecktor infinitely preferable to Anthony Hopkins. While both actors have a certain reptilian creepy quality, Brian Cox is tougher and more succinct. He's chilling, and lovely to watch, where Hopkins was frankly a bit tawdry.

Here's Cox below. I loved his little grey wool socks, layered over regular socks. Classic Dr. Lecktor.

Also, Lecktor's extraordinarily swish prison

So ok, it's not really a beach movie, aside from a scene or two where the main character is either emotionally blackmailed into leaving his beach house/family or returning to his beach house/family. But Kim Greist, as FBI Profiler William Greist's wife, has the sandy, beachy, look down. Rolled silk shorts, a mop of sandy blond curls, one dangly earring, what I think may be silk cargo harem pants.... The best part is - all her scenes are so brief and bleached out that her ensembles, already great, leave a lot up to the imagination (so the silk harem pants might actually be her husband's long johns... but she wears them like silk harem pants...and wondering makes them even better). Here she is:

We're the Stains, and we don't put out!

2009-12-15T20:47:00.001-05:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains, Lou Adler (1982)

caroline coons (who worked as a special consultant on this film) hit on the perfect outfit for the teenage girl: blouse/no bra, tights/panties/no pants, black high-heeled booties/red frilly socks. what i would have given to wear this when i was 15 (and now!) without the obvious consequences of wandering out in public sans bra/pants! how did edie sedgewick, blondie and the rest of them get away with it? bravery? the protection of wealth and fame? putting out?

anyway, here is 15 year old diane lane, looking the same (only infinitely radder) as corinne burns, aka third degree burns, who shouts from the stage "i'm perfect! but nobody in this shithole gets to have me, cause i don't put out."

you will most likely notice laura dern as her cousin jessica, christina lahti as her aunt linda, and, as the members of the band the looters - paul simonon from the clash, and steve jones and paul cook from the sex pistols.

you most likely will not recognize ray winstone as billy, the looter's frontman, dressing a bit like early joe strummer and talking like johnny rotten. but it's him - beowolf! the cockney uncle! the thug/first mate/police captain!

ladies and gentlemen, the fabulous stains may be the most joyful and adorable movie i've seen since up. it's also pretty fantastic as a feminist anthem, fashion spread, social satire, who's who of punk rock, and period piece. and, if for no other reason, you must watch til the end to catch of glimpse of steve jones wearing the coolest sweatshirt i've ever seen.

Jean-Luc Godard's Pierrot le Fou, 1965

2009-12-09T15:54:00.004-05:00

back, and with a big list of my favorite things: anna karina (of course her hair and her insouciance, but also and particularly in this movie: her white ruffle-y dress, her red ruffle-y dress, her sailor outfits, all the eyeliner), jean-paul belmond0 (this is anna karina's film, but you just can't overlook belmondo. he had that french chic/weasely thug thing going on way before vincent cassel... and he's the absolute best part of a bout de souffle (or breathless) - pardon my accentlessness!)...

back to the list - island living, um, facepaint and explosions? pierrot le fou really isn't my favorite godard movie, but it is my favorite of his to look at. here's why:

2009-12-03T11:00:00.006-05:00

SYLVESTER STALLONE'S ROCKY III, 1982

In honor of our weekend trip to Philadelphia tomorrow (by train! the best way to get there!) I decided to add the sweetly homoerotic (or at least bi-curious) Rocky III.

Below are a few of the progressively amazing training/jogging montages from the first 3 Rockys - the South Philly market, all the outfit changes, the kids, the dogs... Burgess Meredith in his little cap...

...the iconic PMA run in Rocky...

...familiar territory by Rocky II...

...entirely new territory for Rocky III!

and

Can anyone argue that Apollo Creed was Rocky's classiest nemesis, or fremesis? Thrilling that they gave him another chance to show his stuff (and how!)

2009-11-29T15:51:00.000-05:00

I got it!!!!

2009-11-29T14:56:00.002-05:00

HAL ASHBY'S SHAMPOO (1975)

There's an endless list of reasons to love this movie (super performances by Warren Beatty,

Julie Christie,

Goldie Hawn,

and Jack Warden)

... plus there's a quite touching love story hidden in there. But, really, Julie Christie's sequined, turtleneck backless dress eclipses all...

...wait for it....

2009-11-29T12:45:00.002-05:00

MICHELANGELO ANTONIONI'S THE PASSENGER (1975):

The most stylish movie ever made. We've got:

- a roadtrip across the south of Spain, broken up by frequent pitstops at dusty restaurants and roadside bodegas...

- the African dessert

- a leading lady (Maria Schneider, of Last Tango in Paris notoriety) so chic she can effortlessly rock a Hawaiian shirt paired with unflattering navy blue trousers.

(Not the best ensemble in the movie, definitely, but still.) Here are some better images of her...

- young Jack Nicholson....

- 70s moustaches...

- a karate chop/fight scene so awkward it looks like stop motion

(I wish I knew how to get the video for it... stayed tuned - maybe I'll figure it out someday.)

The scene is especially remarkable for being the only 20 seconds of action in a movie about mistaken identities,

arms dealers,

a nervous breakdown,

a scorned wife,

a television producer,

and young lovers on the run...

I'm already a sucker for gritty-yet-slow 70s movies, but if you add all the above... I'm a goner.